Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeOther'sHealthChina offers visa to Indians and other nationalities inoculated with their vaccine

China offers visa to Indians and other nationalities inoculated with their vaccine

Need to go to China? A Chinese covid-19 vaccine can help you abundantly in that. The country has announced that it will issue visas to those who have inoculated themselves with the coronavirus jab made in China. 

 

In a bid to ease its restrictions placed since March 2020 in view of the pandemic and slow down the increasing spread of the virus, the nation’s government is opening its visas for foreigners to enter their territory including Americans, Indians, and Pakistanis.  

Chinese embassies in many countries have issued this notice while the one in the US released a statement dated Monday announcing the commencement of processing “visa applicants inoculated with Chinese Covid-19 vaccines”. 

ALSO READ: Different but known variant of coronavirus found in Hyderabad

It will begin from this week and is applicable to passengers traveling this week to the Chinese land for starting work, business travel, or for “humanitarian needs” like meeting family members. 

The country has begun its vaccination drive with the 4 locally produced vaccines that received approval from the government. However, it hasn’t given the green signal to any foreign-developed shot yet. 

With the blame of spreading the virus from its borders in the initial phase, China is aiming to trash the criticism by sending out its vaccine to other countries. These countries include Turkey, Indonesia and Cambodia and have received the China-made jabs already.  

According to the statement by the embassy, the offer is valid for people who either received 2 doses of the vaccine or at least a single dose 14 days before applying for the Chinese visa. A similar notice was released by their embassies in India, Italy, Sir Lanka, Pakistan and the Philippines 

However, the strict 3 weeks quarantine is still in place for those coming in the country.  

ALSO READ: Coronavirus can be transiently air-borne; but COVID-19 preventive measures can keep you safe

Two weeks back, the Philippines got a shipment of 600,000 vaccine doses from the Chinese nation, helping it to begin its vaccination programme. These Chinese vaccines are not available as of now in India, Sri Lanka and many other countries, making it difficult for those wanting to opt for the vaccine and travel to the country. 

Moreover, Beijing has been on the receiving end of international backlash due to the lack of test results transparency. This has, in turn, affected its vaccine sales as many are not trusting them. 

The Chinese media outlets, however, report that many companies there are ready to export close to 400 million doses of Chinese vaccines in foreign countries.